For many, Christmas is not the season to be jolly. The Blue Christmas service, held at the Kiama Uniting Church, honours the difficult space that some people inhabit, especially at Christmas.
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The quiet, hour-long service provides an opportunity for people to sing or simply meditate, light a candle for themselves or others, be still and know they are not alone.
It is also a space where participants may find a glimmer of hope for the future.
Reverend Robert Buchan was serving the Uniting Church in the North West plains of NSW eight years ago, when he came to understand how loneliness, loss, depression, illness and suicide were common place in the farming community.
“Christmas-time was for many, then and there as it is here and now, a season where the messages of peace, love, hope and joy are difficult to imagine let alone live out,” he said.
“In 2014 we moved to Kiama – Jamberoo to minister the hope of Christmas to a very different community, but found that the diversity of peoples circumstances were the same as in the North West.
“Elvis Presley decades ago sang a song with the words – ‘You’ll be doing all right, with your Christmas of white, but I’ll have a blue Christmas without you’.
“Our first Blue Christmas service here, drew people from as far away as Wollongong and the Southern Highlands and it has since become an annual event with support from all the local churches.”
The service will be held at the Uniting Church on the corner of Manning and Bong Bong Streets, Kiama at 7pm on Friday, December 15.
For more information ring Rev. Rob on 0423121984.
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